14 November 2007
Today the Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula gives a briefing
on the progress made in transforming her department at the end of the first six
month phase of the Turnaround Project, which came as a result of the work of
the Intervention Support Task Team she appointed last year. She expressed her
satisfaction on the progress made so far.
"We envisaged that the turnaround project will transform the department into
a modern, efficient, cost-effective service organisation responsive to the
needs of South African citizens, residents and visitors to our country. We want
to ensure that we deliver services efficiently and in predictable time frames."
Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She reported on major milestones achieved in the past six months, including
information generated from public survey of Home Affairs clients.
"We found that 39% of customers are visiting Department of Home Affairs
(DHA) offices to gather information and follow-up on an application. It means
that we need to develop systems that allow our customers to use other channels
to access information. This would decrease pressure on offices resulting in
shorter queues, a major bonus for our front desk officials. Here our new
electronic Track and Trace service is absolutely spot-on as it allows our
clients to make enquiries about the progress of their applications
telephonically, through SMS, the website and from 27 of November, through a
professional state of the art call centre that we are busy setting up."
She indicated that achieving shorter processing times for Civic and
Immigration Services is one of the key aims of the project in the coming year.
She announced the current time of 127 days to get to an Identity Document (ID)
will be reduced to 60 days in 12 months and within five years, this will be
reduced to one week.
Regarding the rest of the services she had this to say: "A passport now
takes an average of 41 days. In five years we hope to produce this document
within five days. A permanent residence permit that today takes up to 18
months, we will within one year be aiming to provide within side months. A visa
today can take up to 10 days to be issued, in five years we will do so in two
days. Refugee status determination that today can take up to a year, we hope to
be able to process within a month one year from now.
A major step in the next twelve months will be the implementation of a new
business model based on the work of our vision and design team. The team has
been dealing with the wok of developing a new business model for the
organisation, including investigating the possible reconfiguration of the
department.
Confidently Mapisa-Nqakula promised the country: "It is our target that key
centres of excellence that will operate in terms of the new model will be
established in each province by the end of 2008. These centres will serve as
incubators and training platforms for the roll out of the new Home Affairs, in
terms of its new operating procedures, business processes, technology, staff,
customer services and infrastructure."
Adding that she ultimately wants her department to look and operate very
differently to the way it has in the past.
"When we have completed this turnaround process, Home Affairs will be
modern, streamlined organisation that offers quick, efficient and reliable
service to the people of South Africa. This turnaround is not about superficial
tweaks, it is about deep, fundamental radical change: not only in the way we
work at Home Affairs, but also in the way we think. We want an organisation
that will be free of corruption, led by staff with positive energy, who takes
pride in serving the people of South Africa."
Contact:
Cleo Mosana
Media Liaison Officer
Cell: 082 902 8796
Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
14 November 2007
